Archives for May 2014

We all get in over our heads sometimes and get totally freaked out. And then we run. And while we’re hiding in our studios hoping it will all go away, the problem sits there. And we stew in stress, worrying about how we’ll fix the tech problem because we know it’s not going away.

I have a client right now (she’s probably reading this – but never fear! I won’t reveal your secret identity!) who has had the worst time getting her site together. In fact, I have two of them.

One client slowed down and promised herself that piece by piece, she’d get her site figured out the DIY way. It might take a while, but she wasn’t going to let it get the best of her emotions. That’s great and all, but for some of us that concept is totally impossible. Tech just makes us crazy and we don’t want it holding us back (that’s me too, for the record).

And that’s the other client. The other client is so frustrated with how her developer has been (not great) and how long it’s taking (over a month now) and that she can’t do hardly anything else until it’s ready that it just overwhelmed her.

I think the majority of us artists get THAT way with tech. We can’t tell ourselves it will be ok because in the thick of it – it’s actually not ok. It’s very not ok.

But, I have some helpful tricks for you.

First off, you have to step back. Don’t do one of my tricks until you’ve taken a break. Like a real break where you leave your computer, leave your studio, probably even leave your house. Take a walk, take a shower, go to the zoo! Whatever it takes to let your mind wander around the issue and dampen then harshness of the whole thing.

Then you’ve got to pick how you’re going to handle it. You can’t hide from the problem. It’s not going away unless you decide not to have a website (bad plan) or not to use the internet at all (even worse plan). So how are you going to fix the problem?

Solution 1

Use that tech beast of the internet to your advantage. Google has many powers. And if you Google the right thing, you might find an answer to your problem that you can solve on your own. Perhaps it’s as easy as checking a box. Or maybe it’s more like tweaking the code, not needing to know code but just needing to match up the code in one place on your site to the code they’re giving you on whatever site you found in Google. You’ve played those Find the Differences games with the two side-by-side pictures, right? The pictures look the same at first glance but when you look closer, you can spot the 5 things that have been changed. This is the same thing and often the reason something’s gone awry.

Solution 2

Call in the armed forces. You don’t feel comfortable with the issue. It baffles you and you’re too overwhelmed to even try to fix it. No shame! Seriously, we all have strengths and weaknesses. And sometimes it’s nice to just pay someone else to borrow their strength for awhile. So hire someone to fix it for you. If you’re hiring the right person, they’ll fix it faster than you could (usually A LOT faster) and they’ll even like doing it. Crazy! Don’t drive yourself to the brink when someone else can just pop in and voila! Problem solved.

Uh-Oh’s

1. So, the key here is that you first step back. You can’t objectively decide whether Solution 1 or Solution 2 is best for you when you’re hunched at your desk in tears. (Again, no shame! I’ve been there!) So you have to get away for a bit and put some time between you and the project.

2. You could run into a little trouble if you take too much time away. The problem will fester. Depending on what it is, it could get worse or create little baby problems like a freaking rabbit! Ugh, no good. I recommend never more than 24 hours or you’re just hiding from the problem. The idea is to feel less emotional, not completely ignore the thing.

3. You could hire the wrong person. And this is where you have to put on your business owner’s hat. You need to recognize when the person you’re working with is stressing you out and you need to fire them. That sounds awful, but honestly it can be as easy as having them quietly finish whatever they’re working on and thank them for their hard work. And then let someone else in. Or you could outright have the conversation to fire them, which would be the right move if they are actively making things worse.

Have you kept a cool head when a tech problem arose? How did you do it? I’d love to hear your story in the comments.

What’s a success jar? Yep – I can practically hear your thoughts all the way over here through the interwebs. A success jar is just a spot to keep note of all your successes, big and small.

The idea is that we often have those ‘ick’ times in our businesses (heck – in our personal lives too!) when we just feel like we’re stuck. We get down on ourselves and lose hope. So a success jar is a way to revisit moments where you were really pleased with yourself and your business. It actually really helps cheer you up!

There are a couple key tactics that make a success jar… a success! Ha!

First off, it needs to be readily available. While your jar can be any type of container (box, jar, bowl… whatever) and can be plain or heavily decorated or anything in between, if it isn’t easy to get to and use, you won’t use it. This is why I know a few entrepreneurs who choose to keep theirs on their cell phones instead. Digital is fine too! The point is that you’re keeping track.

Secondly, keep paper and a pen right next to it so you don’t have any excuses.

Third, don’t censor your “successes”. Had a really productive day where you crossed all the tasks off your list? That deserves a success note just as much as making a sale! If you feel happy or proud or excited – grab that pen and make a note.

Fourth, save all the old notes. While the jar is great for cheering you up when you’re down, it’s also helpful when you do your monthly and yearly reviews. In addition to making note of the important numbers in your business, you should also be noting the big events. Did you run a sale in July? Did one customer buy three of your pieces in March? Did you finish a new series and post them all for sale on your site it September? If you’ve been putting dates on your success notes, you can line up some of these events with revenue, new subscribers to your email list, and other cool numbers. You can also make connections between different events, seeing how a sale you ran led to a customer buying multiple things or how posting your entire new series led to a lot of social media activity and then a lot of email subscribers.

So I recommend reviewing these notes monthly and inputting the relevant events into your monthly review, but also keeping the notes to read when you’re feeling down. When you run out of space in your jar, you can throw out the oldest notes as long as you’ve got them stored in your monthly or yearly reviews.

Do you already keep a success jar? I’d love to see a picture of it! Just post it on social media and put a link in the comments right below.

Things that exist:
Customers who collect your art like a first grader collects stickers.
Sun-filled studios that practically burst with creative energy.
Supportive friends who are just the teensiest bit jealous of your awesome art career.

Things that don’t exist:
Business plans made of hope.

If you’ve been winging your art business, flying by the seat of even your best pair of pants, I bet it’s not working yet. And if you’ll get real with yourself for a moment, you might realize that it’s never going to work.

You can’t build a business on hope.

But the good news is that a business plan doesn’t have to be hard to make. Google “how to write a business plan” and you’ll groan audibly. I promise. Try it.

But your business plan doesn’t have to look like that. It just needs to include four simple things.

1. Vision. What do you want your business to look like?
The best part about this is that it isn’t set in stone. You have to write it down or it isn’t real, but you don’t have to marry it. If you decide in 6 months that you kind of hate what you’re building, it’s your business and you can change direction. But without a direction to start with, you’ll just be jogging in place.

2. Market. Who likes your art?
You might not have the answer to this one perfect yet. But write what you do know about them. A yoga aficionado is a completely different type of person than someone who loves monster truck shows. And that means they each respond to very different things. You want to choose your visual components and your copy – all things branding – with your market in mind.

3. Money. Where is it coming from?
The easiest way to figure this out is to work backwards. What do you want to make in a year? Then divide that by 12 to figure out how much you’ll need to make in a month. And then you can determine how you’ll get to that monthly number.
If you’re a painter and you need to make $2000 each month and you can only finish 20 small canvases in a month, you’ll need to price all of them at about $100. And you’ll need to sell ALL of them. Unless you find another revenue stream. So you could sell large paintings as well. Or you could sell prints, license your work, or teach classes. There are tons of other options too. Decide how you’ll make the money, at least for now, and you’ll be able to fix it if things go awry.

4. PR. How will you connect with your market?
Once you’ve dealt with #1-4, you can choose marketing strategies that support these goals and concepts in your business. If you need to connect with teenagers, you might want to be really active on social media – especially Tumblr and Instagram whose users are mostly young. If you need to connect with women in their 30s, you might want to get mentioned in Cosmopolitan, Lucky, or Elle Decor.

And that’s just about it! You just need a little roadmap. You need to have thought out the pieces of the puzzle. And you need to use these pieces to guide your business decisions so you’re never jogging in place again.